2005 Equality California Supported Legislation

Each year many pieces of legislation that positively affect the LGBT community and its friends are introduced in the California Legislation. For 2005 Equality California has identified these bills as contributing to the betterment of California.

AB 13 (Jackie Goldberg, D–Los Angeles)

Purpose: To prohibit, with certain exceptions, public schools from using the name "Redskins" as a school or team mascot, name, or nickname.

AB 228 (Paul Koretz, D–WestHollywood)

Purpose: To prohibit a healthcare service plan and a health insurer from denying coverage for the costs of organ or tissue transplantation services on the basis that the enrollee, subscriber, insured, or policyholder is infected with HIV.

AB 378 (Judy Chu,D–MontereyPark)

Purpose: All persons in California have the right to be free from any violence, or intimidation by threat of violence, because of their race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, political affiliation, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, or position in a labor dispute, or because another person perceives them to have any of those characteristics. Existing law allows an attorney general, district attorney, city attorney, or aggrieved individual to bring a civil action against any person who interferes by threats, intimidation, or coercion, with the exercise or enjoyment of an individual's rights. This bill would increase the statute of limitation for the initiation of such an action from one year to three years.

AB 547 (Patty Berg, D–Eureka)

Purpose: To allow local governments to establish and maintain clean needle and syringe exchange programs without having to declare a health state of emergency every two weeks.

AB 654 (Patty Berg D–Eureka)

Purpose: To allow an adult who meets certain qualifications, and who has been determined by his or her attending physician to be suffering from a terminal disease, as defined, to make a request for medication for the purpose of ending his or her life in a humane and dignified manner.

AB 680 (Wilma Chan, D–Oakland)

Purpose: Current law requires school districts with large language minority student populations to translate, into that minority language, all reports, notices, statements, and other documents sent to parents or guardians of those students. This bill would require the State Board of Education to monitor compliance with this law. School districts would be required to report on their compliance, and the State Board of Education would be required to accept competitive bid requests from school districts for funds to help school districts pay for translating documents.

AB 723 (Judy Chu,D–MontereyPark)

Purpose: To require school districts to provide classes in tolerance for members of different racial, ethnic, or religious groups.

AB 1142 (Mervyn Dymally, D–Compton)

Purpose: To establish a statewide African-American HIV/AIDS Initiative to address the disproportionate impact of HIV/AIDS on the health of African-Americans by coordinating prevention and service networks around the state and increasing the capacity of core service providers. The initiative would be implemented in five regional centers.

AB 1597 (John Laird, D–Santa Cruz)

Purpose: To allow state funding to be used in running clean needle or needle exchange programs, including for the purchase of needles, to facilitate the prevention and spread of HIV/AIDS.

AB 1677 (Paul Koretz, D–WestHollywood)

Purpose: To require state prisons to allow nonprofits or healthcare agencies to distribute condoms and dental dams to prisoners in state prisons.

SB 300 (Sheila Kuehl, D–Los Angeles)

Purpose: To increase the circumstances under which an employer must allow an employee to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a seriously ill family member. The need to care for a domestic partner would be added to the list, among others.

SB 565 (Carole Migden, D-San Francisco)

Purpose: To protect registered domestic partners from unfair tax reassessment of their property or businesses to the same extent that spouses have under California law.

SB 840 (Sheila Kuehl, D–Los Angeles)

Purpose: To make allCaliforniaresidents eligible for specified healthcare benefits under the California Health Insurance System. On a single-payer basis, this program would negotiate, or set fees, for healthcare services provided through the system and pay claims for those services.